The impact of a proposed $461 million upgrade by the Lehigh County Authority on Salisbury Township is uncertain, but at least one official said there may be an impact.

The LCA is under a federal mandate to improve its sanitary sewer system to prevent overflows into Little Lehigh Creek at the Allentown Treatment Plant along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in the event of heavy precipitation from storms.

Ratepayers in Upper Macungie Township, Lower Macungie Township, Alburtis Borough and Macungie Borough, which compose the Western Lehigh Sewerage Partnership, are being asked to fund an estimated $32 million of the first phase of the project to rehabilitate the county sewer system, it was reported at a July 11 meeting at LCA headquarters.

“They [Salisbury Township residents] will be affected, but not to the extent that the western Lehigh areas will be,” David J. Tettemer, Salisbury Township consulting engineer, told a reporter for Salisbury Press at the July 14 Salisbury commissioners’ meeting.

When asked what the financial impact on the township might be, Tettemer said, “At this point, we’re not aware of what the full scope of the responsibility of Salisbury Township will be.”

Salisbury and other Lehigh County municipalities are signatories to the LCA. The $461 million in projects is to occur during the next 50 years. A new western Lehigh to Allentown sewer line could cost an extra $120 million.

The western partnership municipalities are required to prevent inflow and infiltration into storm sewer pipes. The added water causes the sanitary sewer system to overflow.

Salisbury had an ongoing program to repair its stormwater system.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are giving the LCA and county municipalities until the end of 2017 to begin “Rainstorm Ready,” a plan to mitigate the inflows.

A memorandum of understanding between the LCA and the municipalities is in the offing.

Improvements to stormwater infrastructure have been made by Salisbury, as well as by Emmaus Borough, South Whitehall Township and the Coplay-Whitehall Sewer Authority.

The EPA ordered sewer overflows be eliminated by year-end 2014. An extension was granted.

Salisbury provided sufficient information and has met conditions of the Administrative Order and Section 308 Requirement for Information of the Clean Water Act issued May 29, 2014, according to an EPA letter received by the township April 14, 2015. The township’s five-year NPDES permit, issued in 2014, is good until 2019.

Under the federal Clean Water Act, a municipality must have a MS4 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to cover stormwater discharges and to maintain compliance with the permit.

Salisbury, along with other Lehigh Valley municipalities, received notice June 25, 2014, of a 30-day deadline to provide the EPA with evidence of MS4 compliance.

Sandy Nicolo, Salisbury Township assistant zoning officer and code enforcement officer, was appointed MS4 coordinator by township commissioners Oct. 8, 2015.

MS4 is an acronym for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, with the “M” standing for “Municipal” and the numeral “4” representing the four “S” first letters of each word in “Separate Storm Sewer System.”

MS4 Storm Water Management Program Protocol requires minimum control measures to enforce the MS4 program, mandated by United States Environmental Protection Agency and enforced in the Commonwealth by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Municipalities are required to fulfill six MCMs: public education, public participation, illicit discharge detection and elimination, construction site runoff control, post-construction stormwater management and pollution prevention for municipal operations and maintenance.